Disintegration of fisers



Sept. 15, 1936. P. F. BROWN DIS-INTEGRATION OF FIBERS Filed NOV. 16, 1953 2 3 N am w??? FIG. 4

fig. 5

INVENTOR.

RNEY.

' tion is to disintegrate rayon staple chins.

Patented Sept. 15, 1936 UNETED satanic e ree Anrclication November li t, *lo. 13913.35?

Elli filainis.

This invention relates to the disintegration of fiber aggregates. A particular application. of the invention is the disintegration of rayon staple chips. The invention also relates to method and apparatus for disintegrating aggregates. The invention will be described in its application to the disintegration of staple rayon chins but it is equally applicable to the disintegration of fiber aggregates of any kind.

In one method of manufacturing staple rayon, viscose is extruded to a coagulating batlri and the threads therein formed are combined to make strands of regenerated cellulose filaments which are subsequently combined with other similar strands to form a thick ropedilre bundle eontain ing upward of 100,800 filaments. .This rope-like bundle is purified, passed through wringers, and chopped into short lengths. ii 1e bundles oi short length fibers, known in the as staple chips, cohere making it difficult to spin them into t they become contaminated with grease and dirt because of these disadvantages, greatly increase the cost of the spinning procew.

It has been proposed to d; gregates by cascading them with a sin e uid through a tower filled with hafdes. the rated fibers and liquid being cent ifuged in order to remove the surface water. This method has, however, been found unsatisfactory because fibers, dispersed in the liquid, are aggregated again in the centrifuging.

It is an object of this invention to disintegrate fiber aggregates. A specific object or the inven An other object of the invention is to provide an in expensive and eficlent apparatus for the disin tegration of fiber aggregates.

The objects of the invention are attained, generally speaking, by blowing the aggregates at high velocity into contact with baffles. The specific means and method hereinafter described also assist in the accomplishment of the objects of this invention.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a view in perspective of my apparatus. Figure 3 is a plan view of. the interior of the top board of the apparatus shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 is a side view of the top board of the apparatus shown in Figure 1. Figure 4 is a plan view of the inside of the bottom board of the apparatus shown in Figure 1. Figure 5 is a side view of the bottom board. Fig. 6 is a cross section on the line 6-5 of Fig. 1 of my disintegrator.

Referring to the numerals oi the drawing, i is se n a disintegrator made according to the principles oi. my invention; E'refers to the top board; 3 refers to the bottom board; l and 5 are the side wall hoards j these four boards form a rectangu lar wind tunnel; ii is an opening in the top board oi the disintegrator providing means whereby fiber aggregates may be admitted to the disin tegrator; iii? are spikes or pins more preferably made oi niclrel wire or the like irnbedded in, or lied to, the ten board; 23 are pins of shorter -d is pipe through. which air may to the wind tunnel. 5, 3 is the bottom board or the short pins projecting at an angle from the board; are pins project-= pro ecting from the board at an angle been above described a peferred the first pin on the left of the it short (or long) and the corre= s one. the second row will be long (or short). .nte'r these two rows of pins there is hi a vantageous to arrange the pins at dii= ice in the boards. For example, the y be set at an angle of. 45, the second angle of 40, the third at an angle of 35 remainder at an angle of about Great latitude and variation are permissible in selecting the angle at which the pins may be mounted. The pins should be slanted away from the jet rather than toward it because the pins, when slanted away from the jet, break up the aggregates without tending to hold'them or to greatly retard-their speed; whereas, if they are pointed toward the jet they tend to catch and hold the aggregates and the latter tend to wedge between the pins and the boards. In general, preferred results are obtained if the angles of the pins with relation to the floor board is'about 45 or less. To mount the pins at angles greater than about 45 tends to undesirably retard their passage through the disintegrator.

The apparatus is used as follows: By any satisfactory contrivance rayon staple chips or other 1, board at about an angle of do";

arranged in staggered relation as fiber aggregates will be brought over the opening 2| of the wind tunnel and a blast of air will be directed through the tunnel from the pipe 6. This air tends to suck the fiber aggregates 5 through the opening 2| into the interior of the disintegrator. The chips strike against the pin baflles in the box at extremely high velocities and, in a completely disintegrated, fiuffy mass, are caught at the end ofv the disintegrator in a chamber that retains the fibers but allows the air to escape. This staple fiber, when rayon is the fiber that is disintegrated, when run through my disintegrator can be used much more advantageously in the production of staple products than the staple which has heretofore, been used; the fiber mass is soft and fluffy and usually contains not more than about 5% of the fibers in parallel and unseparated relationship. This is an 'improvement of several hundred percent over the best prior methods.

A wide range of air velocities can be used in the practice of my invention. Speaking in terms of tunnel velocity, the air velocities may vary upward of about 10,000 feet per minute. It is not desirable to operate at speeds averaging less than 10,000 feet'per minute because at lower speeds the chips (speaking of staple fiber chips) may not be completely opened. It will be under- 30 stood, of course, that the velocities which are satisfactory will differ according to the particular product which is to be disintegrated. In normal operation in the treatment of rayon staple chips an average tunnel air velocity of between 25,000 and 40,000 feet per minute produces satisfactory per minute or even more, draw chips into the disintegrator and so accelerate them that they cwill receive a maximum effect upon striking the first pins. 1

The invention is particularly useful in the disintegration of staple rayon chips but it can be used for the disintegration of fiber aggregates of any type.

As many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention may be made Without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.

I claim: v

1. The method of disintegrating rayon staple *chips' which comprises blowing the chips, by means of a gaseous. medium, at a velocity of over 10,000 feet per minute into contact with rows of pin bafiles of progressively increasing length inclined in the direction of flow at progressively deresults and these velocities are recommended creasing angles, the pins of certain of the rows first contacted being of non-uniform length.

2. The method of disintegrating rayon staple.

4. The method of disintegrating rayon staple chips which comprises blowing the chips, by

means of a gaseous medium, at a velocity of over 10,000 feet per minute into contact with rows of pin baiiies inclined in the direction of flow at progressively decreasing angles.

5. The method of disintegrating rayon staple chips which comprises blowing the chips, by means of a gaseous medium, at a velocity of upward of 10,000 feet per minute into contact with a series of baflles arranged to obstruct but not to stop the passage of'the fibers.

6. The method of disintegrating fiber aggregates which comprises blowing the aggregates at avelocity upward of 25,000 feet per minute into contact with a series of bafiles arranged to obstruct but not to stop the passage of the fibers.

'7. The method of disintegrating fiber aggregates which comprises blowing the aggregates at a velocity of about 25,000 feet per minute into contact with a series of bafiies.

8. An apparatus for the disintegration of rayon staple chips comprising a wind tunnel of rectangular cross section, pins arranged in rows on i one side of the interior thereof, the pinsin oer-- tain of the first said rows being of non-uniform lengths, pins arranged in rows inthe side of the tunnel opposed to the said side, the rows of pins 'on the oppositesides being arranged in staggered relation, pins in the first said rows being arranged in the direction of flow at an angle of 45, the other rows of pins being arranged in the direction of flow at an angle of 30, means for injecting air into the tunnel at high velocity, and means for utilizing the velocity of the injected air to draw material to be disintegrated into the tunnel. 9. The method which comprises disintegrating staple rayon chips to render them suitable for spinning purposes by blowing'the same, by means of a gaseous medium, ata velocity of over 10,000

feet per minute into contact with a series of pin 

